At the Search Church this past May, we invited some content marketing experts to share the methods, strategies, and tools they use to connect content to those who need it. We’ll be providing their talks on the blog over the next few weeks, so you can all learn from their insights and experience! Last week, we shared our recap of Tracey Halvorsen’s presentation on Becoming a Storymaker.

Peep Laja is the Founder and Chief Conversion Architect of Markitekt, a conversion optimization agency. He’s been doing digital marketing for 10+ years in Europe, Middle East, Central America and the US and also writes the most popular conversion blog in the world: ConversionXL.

Peep comes at content creation from a data driven perspective and is always testing his content to determine what yields the greatest results. He shared the biggest conversion optimization mistakes you can make and what lessons content creators can takeaway from them. Ultimately, it boils down to this: By taking a data-centric and “Always Be Testing” approach, you’re more likely to produce blog posts your audience cares about and wants to read– so you don’t waste time and money on mediocre content.

Most Exciting Moment

“There are no average people.” (5:28)

If you’re optimizing your content for your average customer or reader, you’re optimizing for no one, because there is no average reader or buyer. Looking at the average tells you very little. Instead, “segment the crap” out of your traffic and data, so you can determine what part of your audience a specific post resonates with.

Most Actionable Item

Tests (and content) should be based on a hypothesis (10:52)

A good test is built on a strong foundation of data, not whatever idea pops into your head that morning. Similarly, if you’re basing your content on your random ideas and not a sound, data supported hypothesis, “you’re doing it wrong.” His best advice: talk to your customers– find out what their struggles are and create content around that.